Nvidia’s Shield, priced at $349, looks like a niche gaming device for technophiles

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Receiving an upgrade from the “Project” status and now simply known as Shield, Nvidia’s new handheld Android gaming console that also streams games from your PC will be available to pre-order in less than a week, and finally has a price. For $349, you can pre-order a Shield on May 20, and it will ship in June, from the usual suspects of retailers — GameStop, Newegg, Micro Center, and Canada Computers. With the classification of an Android gaming console — a relatively new market space quickly filling with competitors — but one that also streams your PC games to the comparatively small screen, is $349 a fair price, or will that relegate Shield to a niche device?

First, as has been discussed ad nauseum since the Ouya, Shield, GameStick, and other competitors stormed onto the scene, Android isn’t exactly the platform you flock to for games. It’s possible this cavalcade of Android gaming consoles and handhelds might change that, but for now, they’re entering into a gaming market that’s seen in the public eye as not only trailing behind consoles, PC gaming, and dedicated handhelds, but also behind iOS.

A price tag of $349 also makes Shield one of the most expensive gaming devices on the market. Let’s compare the price to the competition. A WiFi-only PS Vita rings up for $249, while a 3G $299 bundle includes a game voucher, a 4GB memory card, and one year of PS Plus membership, which itself includes the Vita’s biggest hits — Uncharted Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, and WipEout 2048. A Nintendo 3DS will only set you back $169, while an XL model only costs $199. An XL bundled with Animal Crossing: New Leaf, only runs $219. A 250GB PlayStation 3 bundled with Uncharted 3 runs $269. An Xbox 360 runs anywhere from $99 alone, to $379 bundled with a Kinect and game. A 32GB Wii U Deluxe set, which comes with Nintendo Land, costs $349. At least until the end of this year when the PlayStation 4 is supposed to release (even though it won’t be sold at a loss), the Shield is the most expensive console on the market, not counting fancy bundles.

A steep price tag is usually tolerable if you’re getting your money’s worth. With the Shield, you’re definitely getting some fancy tech. The flip-up, clamshell-style touchscreen measures in at five inches, and displays in 720p. Shield sports a full-sized console-style controller — similar to the Xbox 360’s — to which the screen is attached, as well as integrated speakers. The device runs the latest version of Jelly Bean, and packs a Tegra 4 SoC under the hood, which currently ranks as one of the fastest ARM processor on the market. The SoC has four CPU cores, 72 GPU cores, and 2GB of RAM, which will be more than capable of handling Android games — which leads us to what will most likely be Shield’s biggest mountain to climb. Shield, while an attractive piece of kit, plays Android games. This isn’t a knock on hard-working Android game developers — it’s just that your phone can already play those games fine, is compatible with the entire catalog, and on top of that, also acts as your phone, so you don’t need to carry around two devices that play the same library of games.

What is supposed to set Shield apart, though, is its ability to stream PC games. However, it can’t, for example, stream them over your 3G or LTE connection. It also can’t stream them using the internet connection at your friend’s house. This means that you can’t make progress in Don’t Starve or re-visit BioShock’s Rapture all over again during your long, arduous train commute every morning, or while you’re bored waiting for your buddy to finish his raid. In order to stream your PC games to the Shield, you essentially have to be in the vicinity of your PC. At that point, what’s the real benefit of switching from your glorious PC monitor to a 5-inch screen, and dropping keyboard-and-mouse controls in order to play games with a gamepad that were developed for a platform that uses keyboards and mice?

After giving the Shield an admittedly quick spin at PAX East 2013, it was easy to see that the hardware is well-made. The unit felt sturdy, the clamshell screen didn’t shake or feel loose like the screen on the 3DS often does, and the controller felt comfortable. As shown in demos, it’s apparent that the streaming component works just fine — the lag between the PC and the Shield is virtually unnoticeable. However, $349 certainly seems like a high price to play games your phone already does, or PC games on a 5-inch screen — without a keyboard and mouse — from your couch in the living room when your gaming PC is only a few feet away. For that reason, it seems like Shield is destined to be a niche device for the curious technophile. If Nvidia somehow gets it to run PC games locally, or manages to stream PC games over a mobile connection without any kind of lag, then we’ll be having a very different conversation.

350$ pebbles for that?? I agree it should be at $99 and that’s it. I think it’s going to fail if it doesn’t have enough support in a big way. Oh yeah why do you want to stream your pc games into the shield if you technically have to be close to your pc, might as well play on the pc, the only reason I see to stream your pc games into the shield it’s if you are in the loo. I’m not paying 350$ to play android games on that thing, angry birds anyone? lol.

Jhaggy Lloren

$349! might as well get the PS Vita.

http://www.facebook.com/scott.jackson.77770 Scott Jackson

I already have one of these. It’s called my phone with a game controller attachment. What do I need to spend $350 on one of these for? Sorry but this is a lame idea. Until they can add something that my phone can’t already do then I hope this fails.

To people who say this should be $99, you know they would lose way too much money at that price. This thing is never going to be able to compete on price with the cost of a phone with a subsidized contract.

Phobos

On the long run there is a pretty good chance they already losing money with a device like that one. Only people with more $$ than sense will buy it. Two things can happen sell it a reasonable price therefore there is a good chance people will buy it or its going to pick up dust at the store at that price and when they realize its a failure its going to go on sale for $99. Too little too late.

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